IRISH HUNTERS. l6l 



can only say that I have been well and safely carried by 

 many of them on their first appearance in Leicestershire, 

 as in other English countries, that they seemed in- 

 tuitively to apprehend the character of the fences they 

 had to deal with, and that, although being mortal, they 

 could not always keep on their legs, I cannot remem- 

 ber one of them giving me a fall because he was an 

 Irish horse ! 



How many their nationality has sa ved me, I forbear 

 to count, but I am persuaded that the careful tuition 

 undergone in youth, and their varied experience when 

 sufficiently advanced to follow hounds over their native 

 country, imparts that facility of powerful and safe 

 jumping, which is one of the most important qualities 

 among the many that constitute a hunter. 



They possess also the merit of being universally well- 

 bred. This is an advantage no sportsman will overlook 

 who likes to be near hounds while they run, but objects 

 to leading, driving, or perhaps pushing his horse home. 

 Till within a few years, there was literally no cart-horse 

 blood in Ireland. The " black-drop " of the ponderous 

 Clydesdale remained positively unknown, and although 

 the Suffolk Punch has been recently introduced, he 

 cannot yet have sufficiently tainted the pedigrees of 

 the country, to render us mistrustful of a golden- 



M 



